Galway International Arts Festival 2018

Line up for this summer's festival is announced - what are you going to see?

BY KERNAN ANDREWS Galway Advertiser, Wed, May 16, 2018

John Crumlish, GIAF CEO; and Paul Fahy, artistic director GIAF; on a cutout of Museum of the Moon, a spectacular giant moon featuring detailed NASA imagery of the lunar surface by UK artist Luke Jerram, who is known worldwide for his large-scale public artworks at the announcement of the programme for the 2018 Galway International Arts Festival Programme on Wednesday. Photo:- Mike Shaughnessy

A PSYCHEDELIC journey for the ears with The Flaming Lips, and for the eyes and feet with the Miracoco Luminarium installation; getting up close and personal and with the moon (even its dark side ); to harrowing stories from victims of the Syrian civil war to a survivor of the Holocaust - this is the Galway International Arts Festival 2018.

The festival, which launches tomorrow evening [Thursday may 10, 6pm] in the Hotel Meyrick, boasts five world premiers and five Irish premieres, and will include a public lecture from Uachtarán na hÉireann, Michael D Higgins, who will speak on the issue of 'Home' - which is also the theme of this year's GIAF - in NUI Galway on Saturday July 21.

While shows will be taking place across Galway city, in a new departure, Eyre Square and NUIG will become festival hubs throughout July 16 to 29. Eyre Square will host the Festival Garden, a venue to hang out and chill, with food, drinks, live sets, DJs, an information centre and box office.

Theatre/opera/circus

Grief, loss, but also celebrating a life that was, come together in the world premiere of Incantata, by Paul Muldoon, one of Ireland's leading poets (Town Hall Theatre, July 16-21, 24, 27 ). Starring Stanley Townsend, this is Muldoon's tribute to the artist Mary Farl Powers, a close friend of Muldoon's and a former love.

The controversy over the statue of British imperialist and colonialist Cecil Rhodes at Cape Town University, and the issues it raises of race, racism, exploitation, conquest, class, and empire, will be brought to Galway in The Fall (Black Box, July 16-21 ). Featuring drama, dance, and song, it was written and will be performed by seven drama students who were involved in the protests to remove the statue.

When audiences enter the Black Box for The Aspirations Of Daise Morrow, they will walk onto a vast clay mound, sit in seats arranged in circles, and watch the play as actors walk past them, in this critically acclaimed stage adaptation of Patrick White's novel (July 23-28 ). An even more unusual presentation will be Flight (O'Donoghue Centre, NUIG, July 19-29 ), charting the journey of two refugees crossing Europe in the hope of reaching Britain. Audiences will see their journey, while standing in a booth, watching different 3D images, while listening to narration.

Continuing with the immersive theatre experience, is Lebanese play/installation Gardens Speak (Bank of Ireland Theatre, NUIG, July 23-29 ), where visitors will don protective forensic gear, and then dig at the ground, to hear the reconstructed stories of victims of the Syrian civil war, and the hopes they have left behind for the children and their country.

New writing by Irish playwrights will be showcased by Druid in the Mick Lally Theatre, when the company stages Furniture by Sonya Kelly (July 12-28 ) and Shelter by Cristín Kehoe, and casts boasting such talent as Niall Buggy, Garrett Lombard, Aaron Monaghan, and Rory Nolan. There will also be a new play, Office 3AA by Enda Walsh (O'Donoghue Centre, NUIG, July 16-29 ). An Taibhdhearc will stage Baoite/Bait (July 12-22 ), focusing on a fishing community under threat from fracking; and Class, a play looking at all connotations of the word (July 24-28 ). Galway's Decadent Theatre will stage Conor McPherson's Port Authority (Nuns Island Theatre, July 16-29 ), directed by Andrew Flynn, who also directs Galway Youth Theatre in Wit (Nuns Island, July 16-29 ).

Sharon Carty, the Irish mezzo-soprano, returns to the festival to star in Irish National Opera's production of Christoph Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice (Town Hall, July 23-29 ), in what promises to be an imaginative production featuring music, dance, song, and imagery, and featuring the Irish Baroque Orchestra.

Two Australian physical theatre/acrobatic companies will present what could prove an athletic endurance contest for themselves and audiences, as well as top flight, breathtaking, entertainment, in Gravity & Other Myths' Backbone (Bailey Allen Hall, NUIG, July 17-21 ) and Circa's Humans (July 24-29 ). An Irish-Nigerian dancer and a Palestinian will join forces for Cloud Study (Festival Gallery, Market Street, July 17-19 ).

Monroe's will host Liam Ó Maonlaí and Brendan Regan (July 16 ), Sharon Shannon and band (July 17 ), the marvellous Camille O'Sullivan (July 18 ), indie-folk duo The Lost Brothers (July 26 ), indie legends The Wedding Present (July 25 ), and of course the annual Trad Lunchtime shows. There will also be a live set from Beardyman followed by a DJ set from Kevin Rowland (Dexy's Midnght Runners ) on July 28 and a DJ set from Jerry Dammers (July 27 ).

Classical music enthusiasts can look forward to the China National Traditional Orchestra (July 24 ) and Wajahat Khan and Peadar Ó Riada in St Nicholas' Collegiate Church (July 17 ).

Street events and visual arts

Little remains of the Galway-Clifden railway line bar the structures in the River Corrib at Woodquay. To commemorate that once existent structure Olivier Grossetete's The People Build will construct a cardboard bridge in the area; a seven meter 1:500,000 replica of the moon will be out an about in Galway in Museum Of The Moon, allowing the public to view its surface up close; huge, illuminated, mysterious birds will stalk the streets in Birdmen; while Galwegians will be able to wander through a maze of winding paths and changing colours in Miracoco Luminarium.

There will also be exhibitions from David Mach, Deirdre O'Mahony, Sarah Hickson, Impressions, Domestic Godless, Ronnie Hughes and Evgeniay Martirosyan, and Galway's Jennifer Cunningham, as well as artworks about protest, a "web like structural negative" replica of a 6th century Connemara church.

Talks

The theme of home will feature most strongly in the GIAF series of talks. Historian Catherine Corless will speak about the Tuam and Bessborough Mother and Baby Homes (July 21 ); there will also be talks on the housing crisis, and talks from novelist Sebastian Barry, Prof Roy Foster, and Holocaust survivor Tomi Reichental.

Tickets are on sale via www.giaf.ie and will be on sale in person at the Galway Tourist Office, Foster Street, or 091 - 566577 from June 18.